There's trouble in space. Scientists disagree over whether Nasa's Phoenix Mars lander found evidence of liquid water before it froze to death.
In a provocative new paper, 22 members of the mission argue that droplets seen on Phoenix's leg were fro
m liquid water that splashed during landing. Water is a key ingredient for life to evolve. If the discovery holds up, it would make the Martian arctic seem less hostile.
However, other team members suggest the images are too fuzzy to support the extraordinary claim.
Michael Hecht of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which managed the $475m (£340m) mission, said: "It's highly unlikely that that's the explanation. It's just water vapour moving around. It's an ordinary, unexciting explanation."
GERMANYA German mathematician who died 450 years ago has been sent a letter demanding that he pay long overdue television licence fees, according to residents at his former address. Germany's GEZ broadcast fee collection office sent the bill to the last home address of Adam Ries, an algebra expert who bought the house in 1525. A club in his honour was set up at the property four centuries later.
ITALYResearchers believe they have found the remains of a female 'vampire' in Venice, buried with a brick jammed between her jaws to prevent her feeding on victims of a plague which swept the city in the 16th century. Matteo Borrini, an anthropologist from the University of Florence, said the discovery, on the small island of Lazzaretto Nuovo in the Venice lagoon, supported the medieval belief that vampires were behind the spread of plagues such as the Black Death.
CHINAPolice in south-west China are spicing up drivers with raw chilli in a bid to stop them falling asleep at the wheel. Police in the Chongqing region have started serving drivers chilli peppers at motorway service stations, in the traditional Chinese belief that people feel more sleepy in spring, the Chongqing Evening News said.
VATICANFeminists of the world sit down before you read this. The Vatican newspaper says that perhaps the washing machine did more to liberate women in the 20th Century than the pill or the right to work.
The submission was made in a lengthy article titled 'The Washing Machine And The Liberation Of Women – Put In The Detergent, Close The Lid And Relax', printed in l'Osservatore Romano, the semi-official Vatican newspaper.
"What in the 20th century did more to liberate Western women?" asks the article, which was written by a woman. "The debate is heated. Some say the pill, some say abortion rights and some the right to work outside the home. Some, however, dare to go further: the washing machine," it says.
It then goes on to talk about the history of washing machines, starting with a rudimentary model in 1767 in Germany and ending up with today's trendy launderettes, where a woman can have a cappuccino with friends while the tumbler turns.
SOMALIAWhen times are hard, people tend to club together.
Twenty-one couples have shared a joint wedding in Somalia, where the traditional lavish celebrations are increasingly unaffordable at a time of economic slump.
The function was held at a hotel in Hargeisa, capital of Somalia's breakaway region of Somaliland, and was arranged by Telsom, a telecoms company that employs all the bridegrooms.
The Horn of Africa region is staunchly Muslim, so the men and women celebrated separately.
The expense of a traditional wedding, especially when economic times are hard, is driving some young Somalis to leave their homeland.
"One of the reasons why the youth migrate is weddings are expensive, and I appeal to the community to simplify marriage by reducing the cost," Sheikh Mohamed Sheikh Omar Dirir, one of the area's most prominent religious leaders, told guests.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
CHRISTOPHER CAPONEThe lawyer for a man who believes he is Al Capone's grandson filed a motion for an attempt to get DNA samples so his client can prove he is a relation of the famous Chicago gangster.
The 37-year-old Boston-based Christopher Capone, author of Son Of Scarface: A Memoir By The Grandson of Al Capone, had his name legally changed six months ago. The real estate investor has tried without success to obtain DNA samples from male descendants of the gangster. Capone said he may request exhumation of the mobster's remains from Mount Carmel in the Chicago suburb of Hillside.
JANE FONDAThe Oscar-winning actress opened on Broadway for the first time in 46 years last week, starring as a terminally ill academic researching the late work of Beethoven in the play 33 Variations, directed by Moises Kaufman. An opening night audience at the Eugene O'Neill theatre included Renée Zellweger, Dolly Parton, Geoffrey Rush and Rosie O'Donnell.
GEORGE CLOONEYThe actor led a parade of old favourites back to ER as the medical drama nears the end of its 15-year run. Clooney, who left the show in 1999, reprised his character Dr Doug Ross, who works with wife Carol Hathaway (Julianna Margulies) to persuade a grandmother played by Susan Sarandon to donate the organs of her grandson.
OH, REALLYThe barman who was the inspiration for the TV show Cheers has been made redundant after 35 years.
Eddie Doyle's employers said he was sacked from the Boston tavern, the Bull & Finch, because of the economic downturn.
After Cheers began in 1982, he was serving 5,000 people a day and used the bar's fame to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity.
The full article contains 930 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
